Winter is getting closer and everybody starts talking about kale and putting it in recipes, right? They have a point, since kale is in season now and it is the least bitter when grown in cold temperatures.

And, as I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to nutrition, I went ahead and checked that kale has some amazing amounts of vitamin K, A and C. If you make this soup and eat it and then want to feel extra, especially good about doing it, have a look at this link. It explains a lot about the benefits of kale. World’s Healthiest Foods – Kale

The beans aren’t just a filler either, I used lima beans and found some awesome info about them on that website. Have a look for some info on whatever beans you use.

This is a recipe for a hearty, warming autumn soup. Even though it does not contain meat, it leaves your belly satisfied and full.

This amount serves 4.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely diced (I use a food processor)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 carrot, cut lengthwise and then chopped

1 vegetable stock cube

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

1 tsp marjoram (use oregano if you have no marjoram)

1/2 tsp salt

1 can white beans (lima/haricot/navy, whatever is easiest to get)

2 cups kale, finely chopped

1 1/2 liter water form the kettle

salt & pepper to taste

In a pot, heat the olive oil and add onion and garlic. Let cook for a couple of minutes until the onions soften.

Add the cubed potatoes and carrots. Stir to coat with oil and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Pour the water in and follow with celery, herbs and bring into a rolling boil. Cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are almost ready.

Add kale and drained and rinsed beans and cook for 5 more minutes, just enough for all the flavours to blend.

Check the taste and add more salt if needed. Season with freshly ground pepper.

This is a recipe for breakfast muffins featuring some yummy kale. They will not be very aerated and light because you have the banana, apple and kale but they are guaranteed to be delicious. I am only using 1/3 cup of sugar for this recipe which makes them sweeter than a slice of bread but definitely less sweet than a cake or a dessert muffin. So if you’d like some dessert muffins, go ahead and increase the sugar to half a cup. Or go with another one of my recipes for muffins.

This is very much a comfort food for me but also a way to eat a lot of vegetables. This is a feast of vegetables in an open-faced pie.

The danger here is for the vegetable juices to run and soak the dough but as long as you do what I did, it shouldn’t happen. And I would eat this dough even when soaked because it’s delicious. You can be a bit adventurous and use different veggies if you like. I know this version tastes good. If you bought kale especially for this recipe and you’re not sure what to do with the rest of it, you can toss it in the freezer and use the same way you would use spinach later.

For the crust:

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

For the filling:

1/2 yellow bell pepper

1 big, curly kale leaf

1 garlic clove

2 Tbsp tomato puree

a handful of broccoli florets

a couple of mushrooms

a small piece of Parmesan cheese

a bigger (around 100g) piece of another cheese (I’m using a Norwegian brand called Jarlsberg)

1 tsp of dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

Start with the crust, mix all of the crust ingredients in a bowl and knead until it forms a dough ball. Leave in a warm place under plastic wrap for 30 minutes.

When you come back after that time, the dough should have risen. Knead it again to get the air out of it and cover the bowl with a plastic wrap again.

Now you can start chopping all the vegetable ingredients. Once you are half way through that process, preheat the oven to 220C/425F, the best program to use is both top and bottom heat.

Once all the vegetables are chopped, take the dough out of the bowl, spray a baking dish with cooking oil, so that the dough doesn’t stick and spread the dough all over the bottom and sides of the dish.

Don’t worry if you’re not very good with dough and there is a hole, just repair it with some leftover dough later.

Once done spread the tomato puree around the bottom and sprinkle with herbs. Next start layering the vegetables until you run out. Cover with cheese slices.